Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) interactive sessions.
Technical Background
Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) is an ongoing effort to develop industry standards for integrating real-time communications functionality into web clients, such as web browsers, to enable direct interaction with other web clients. This real-time communications functionality is accessible by web developers via standard markup tags, such as those provided by version 5 of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML5), and client-side scripting Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) such as JavaScript APIs. More information regarding WebRTC may be found in “WebRTC: APIs and RTCWEB Protocols of the HTML5 Real-Time Web,” by Alan B. Johnston and Daniel C. Burnett (2012 Digital Codex LLC), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
WebRTC provides built-in capabilities for establishing real-time video, audio, and/or data streams in both point-to-point interactive sessions, as well as multi-party interactive sessions. The WebRTC standards are currently under joint development by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Information on the current state of WebRTC standards can be found at, e.g., http://www.w3c.org and http://www/ietf.org.
To establish a WebRTC interactive session (e.g., a real-time video, audio, and/or data exchange), two web clients may retrieve WebRTC-enabled web applications, such as HTML5/JavaScript web applications, from a web application server. Through the web applications, the two web clients then engage in a media negotiation to communicate and reach an agreement on parameters that define characteristics of the WebRTC interactive session. This media negotiation may take the form of a WebRTC “offer/answer” exchange. A WebRTC “offer/answer” exchange typically occurs via a secure network connection such as a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection or a Secure WebSockets connection. In an offer/answer exchange, a first web client on a sender device sends an “offer” to a second web client on a recipient device. The offer includes a WebRTC session description object (also referred to as “token”) that specifies media types and capabilities that the first web client supports and prefers for use in the WebRTC interactive session. The second web client then responds with a WebRTC session description object “answer” that indicates which of the offered media types and capabilities are supported and acceptable by the second web client for the WebRTC interactive session. Once the WebRTC offer/answer exchange is concluded, the web clients may then establish a direct “peer connection” with one another, and may begin an exchange of media or data packets transporting real-time communications. The peer connection between the web clients typically employs the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) to transport real-time media flows, and may utilize various other protocols for real-time data interchange.
The specific nature of a WebRTC offer/answer exchange may pose a challenge for enterprise networks that wish to apply enterprise-specific policies and/or media features to real-time communications sessions across enterprise network boundaries. For example, an enterprise network may require that enterprise policies, such as WebRTC session restriction policies, be applied, and/or may require that WebRTC sessions be recorded. While many current enterprise networks have an existing engine in place to support other communications protocols (e.g., the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)), they may require implementation of a separate, parallel engine to support application of enterprise policies to WebRTC interactive sessions. However, implementation of such a parallel engine specifically for WebRTC interactive sessions may prove technically and/or financially burdensome.